Scuderia Ferrari has failed to line up both cars on the grid on two occasions in the last four races, and this is reportedly causing “tension in the air” within the team and among the drivers.
A few weeks ago, Carlos Sainz couldn’t participate in the Qatar Grand Prix due to a fuel leak, while his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc had an incident during the formation lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix last, most likely caused by an electrical issue.
These technical setbacks have cost Ferrari valuable points in the championship, especially in the battle for the second place in the Constructors’ World Championship with Mercedes.
Reliability issues, but not only
However, Charles Leclerc was not the only Ferrari driver affected by a problem in Brazil. During the race, Carlos Sainz asked the team to “bin” his clutch after a poor start that cost him several positions.
The Spaniard expressed his complaints over team radio, but his race engineer advised him to keep his thoughts to himself until an appropriate time for a private discussion.
According to Alice Powell, a former W Series driver and currently a simulator driver for Formula E development, the Scuderia must address this issue because the long list of problems that have plagued the team this season is creating “tensions” with the drivers.
Tension in the air
The British driver stated, “Of course, at the beginning, when I saw Leclerc, I thought, ‘Oh no, Charles, you spun warming up the tires.'”
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“And that’s what it looked like at first until we received the radio message saying, ‘I have a hydraulic failure, guys,’ which caused him to lose the rear and spin into the barriers,” she added.
The ’93 class driver has a feeling: “It always seems like Ferrari does a good job, they get on the front row, but then something always happens, whether it’s Sainz saying on the radio, ‘Well, we need to sort out the clutch,’ or something else, not to mention his engineer’s response…”
“It seems like there’s a bit of tension in the air because it can be a botched pit stop, tire degradation, a struggling driver, or a car breaking down. The feeling is that there’s always something compromising the final result,” Alice Powell concluded following the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit.
